My family and I headed to the coast on Saturday. It has become a bit of a tradition for us to do a day trip to the beach and while I enjoy the sand and the waves, I usually take half the day and squeeze in a round of golf. To no one’s surprise that is what I did today.
I booked a tee time at New Smyrna Golf Club, in New Smyrna Beach. The golf course must have changed its name recently because the scorecard and website show New Smyrna Golf Club while all the signs throughout the course list the name as New Smyrna Beach Golf Course. The name difference drives me crazy, in case you couldn’t tell!
Besides the name discrepancy, I found a lot to like about New Smyrna. In fact, the course far exceeded my expectations. Although, I didn’t expect much for the bargain green fee of $35. I thought I’d be playing a run-down Donald Ross design that had seen better days. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
New Smyrna dates back to the 1950’s and Donald Ross gets credit for the design. As I mentioned in my recent post about Southern Pines Golf Club in North Carolina, I have no idea how much of the original Ross design remains here. The course’s website shares that Ross is the designer so I’m going with that. It appears the course was updated in 2016 with work done to the green complexes. And those green complexes are the best part about golfing here.
I played the blue tees (71.4/127/6543) and from tee to green there isn’t much to the course. Most holes are fairly open, run parallel to each other and don’t seem very difficult. However, in typical Ross fashion, the green complexes are absolutely brutal. The greens are built up and slope off in all directions. It is the type of course where you’ll need a perfectly stuck iron to end up on the putting surface. On a windy day I had zero luck getting my golf ball to stay anywhere on the greens. The ball would always take one bounce and roll off the side.
The other thing that I liked about New Smyrna were the cool pine trees scattered throughout the course. The course’s logo is actually the crooked pine tree that is found near the 2nd green. The tree guards the back right section of the green and makes for a tricky approach. There are two other pine trees near the 9th and 17th greens that I found interesting as well.
There isn’t much in the way of signature holes at New Smyrna. Overall, I thought the back nine had the better collection of golf holes. The back nine has the 450 yard par-4 11th and the 303 yard par-4 16th. Both holes are straightaway but play very different with the nearly 150 yard difference between them. The 11th requires two long hits and is the #1 handicap. The 16th can be driven, but the best play is probably short and right of the green which will leave a good angle to chip from.
I’ll call the maintenance very good for the price. I can see why the course seems so popular with the locals. The tees, fairways and greens had good grass coverage and the ball sat well in the fairways. The greens are paspalum and rolled smoothly with some speed. The course had a nice shine to it as we enter the spring season. Off the fairways the rough was thin and sandy.
New Smyrna is the 150th golf course I’ve played in Florida and I’m happy I played it. I’d certainly recommend a round here if you are in the area, just keep your expectations in line with the price. My advice (free, of course) is to bring some patience because the green complexes repel approach shots.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):